Wandering inside new Little Caesars Arena, getting a look at the areas hidden to the public, it's easy to think one is inside an upscale hotel.

A hotel devoted to the history of two of the most iconic teams in the history of pro sports, that is.

News media were given tours of the venue Wednesday, led by executives and staff from Olympia Entertainment and Palace Sports & Entertainment, the former competitors that now share the $863 million project site that's home to the Detroit Red Wings and Pistons.

Media got a look at the backstage rooms devoted to entertainer comfort before and after shows, resplendent in subdued woods and leathers. The arena has five such rooms of varying size, which are served by a full kitchen. They call it the "artist compound."

The hockey and basketball players will get elite comforts, too. Underneath the plaza adjacent to the arena is the Red Wings practice arena, and overlooking that is a sprawling 5,000-square-foot set of rooms for players' families. The area includes a playroom for children, with wooden toys and miniature lockers.

The Red Wings player area — locker room, changing area, lounge, kitchen and therapy rooms — is 23,000 square feet. The kitchen would be the envy of many TV celebrity chefs. The player area is more than double what they had at Joe Louis Arena. Oh, and each of the wooden lockers has a vent to help dissipate the strong odors that are unique to hockey locker rooms.

That's next to the underground practice ice rink whose walls are lined with the Red Wings original championship banners. The area for the Pistons wasn't part of Wednesday's tour because it's still under construction.

These are the places the public won't get a chance to see. Workers are in the final sprint to have the building ready for its Sept. 12 inaugural event, a Kid Rock concert.

"I truly think this building is a work of art," said Tom Wilson, president of Olympia Entertainment that runs the building. His resume now includes opening two arenas: Little Caesars this week, and in 1988 he led the $90 million Palace of Auburn Hills project for then-Pistons owner William Davidson. The Palace won't compete with the new arena, but will be used as the Pistons practice facility and headquarters until that team's new $65 million facility opens in New Center in 2019.

Here are a few more observations and notes from the media tour:

Honoring the history of 2 franchises

Red Wings fans will notice the dramatic bronze sculptures of Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Alex Delvecchio have been relocated from Joe Louis to the new arena's concourse. They're among 1,000-plus objects, pieces or memorabilia, and other items of historic interest or nostalgia that are displayed at Little Caesars Arena.

Both the Red Wings and Pistons, who only decided to relocate downtown last November, are equally represented.

It has taken a specialized staff to create the displays. Marcel Parent was hired by Olympia two years ago as director of curation and content activation. He has two full-time assistants and shares a third with the rest of Olympia. With him, their job is handle what's displayed in the arena and catalog what may be up to 10,000 more items still in storage.

"The goal was to have a place that is dripping with history," Parent said. Fans will be able to see equipment and jerseys from famous players, but also items that commemorate milestones and moments for the teams, individual players, the old venues, games and the city, including music. Some items are on loan from fans. A special private area above the retail store is devoted to such history.

There are also nearly floor-to-ceiling paintings of boxer Joe Louis and hockey legend Gordie Howe.

What's on display will change in the future, Parent said. Some fixtures are permanent, such as the huge letters from the Red Wings first Detroit home, Olympia Stadium.

"The place is set up to celebrate history," said Craig Turnbull, Olympia's senior vice president of marketing and communications.

Control room goes higher tech

Larry A. Peplin

A crowded control room filled with monitors and a dizzying array of state-of-the-art equipment is where 25-30 staff members will control what fans see during the game on the massive LED video and ribbon boards, and on the arena's 1,300 monitors.

It's a major advancement over the operation at Joe Louis Arena, which jammed equipment into spaces designed in 1979, the year ESPN launched. The Palace had more modern control facilities, but not on the scale of Little Caesars Arena.

"We went from the Flintstones to the Jetsons here," said Pete Skorich, who was hired in January as Olympia's vice president of entertainment services to handle production at the arena.

The control room can handle up to 69 cameras for an event. For a game, 16 will be typical. A secondary control room means the venue can produce two events at once.

Plaza living, arena style

Still under construction outside the arena are a few hundred apartments that will face the Chevrolet Plaza, a public space with a massive video board. The 600- to 800-square-foot apartments are attached to the two parking garages on the arena site. The ground floors of the two residential complexes will be retail space, including three to four restaurants, Wilson said.

The plaza is expected to be used on game days as a gathering space with events for fans without tickets, and will be used for other events. Wilson said companies involved with the annual North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center have called to ask about using the space during the January event.

One parking garage has an elevated walkway that connects to the arena. Wilson said the players will have their own parking in the garage and enter the building via a special separate underground tunnel.

Little Caesars goes big in arena ROI bid

Wilson is especially proud of the "Via" concourse that surrounds the arena. Two-thirds of it have a transparent roof to the sky, and it's four times larger than the narrow concourse at Joe Louis, Wilson said.

"The days of walking elbow to elbow, shoulder to shoulder are over," he said.

Along the concourse are various restaurants, including the new Kid Rock eatery, and the 9,500-square-foot retail store that sells Red Wings and Pistons merchandise. Also on the Via are two of four Little Caesars concessions locations.

The pizza chain, founded in 1959 by Red Wings owners Mike and Marian Ilitch, in April 2016 signed a 20-year, $120 million naming rights deal for the arena.

Little Caesars President Dave Scrivano was part of Wednesday's media tour, and was asked about the value of the deal to the chain. "It brings really good brand exposure," he said. "We expect over time to get a return on that investment." Scrivano said the naming rights will get the chain's name in front of more people, especially overseas where Little Caesars wants to continue its expansion. It's in 22 countries now.

The naming rights will help the pizza company find prospective franchisees and find good employees, he added. "We want to attract the best people to come join us to work," he said.

Verizon, AT&T ink arena tech deals

John King, Olympia's vice president for information technology and innovation, said Comcast Corp. will provide 1,000 wireless access points throughout the arena site. Verizon and AT&T have signed deals to ensure their customers have access to their networks at the arena, King said. Cisco Systems Inc. is providing technology infrastructure, too, he said. Details of the deals were not disclosed.

"We will have the most advanced arena in the world," King said.

Olympia announced its 10-year, $11 million deal last week with Comcast to provide the venue's fiber-based Wi-Fi network.

Such investment has become commonplace at sports venues because of the demand by fans and teams to push out content and consume it.

Docking bays on steroids

Large concerts often require a day each to load in and out, sandwiched around the event itself. Little Caesars Arena officials hope they can reduce that time because it has a massive loading dock area.

The Palace had three loading docks for trucks. Joe Louis had one. Little Caesars Arena has seven bays.

The loading dock area is so large that a tractor trailer can turn around inside it, Wilson said.

Don't tread on me

Many NHL locker rooms have the home team's logo on the floor, as part of the carpet design, and it's considered bad luck and poor manners to walk on the logo.

The Red Wings have eliminated that problem by putting the massive winged wheel logo on the ceiling. The locker room itself isn't especially big, but the players have a separate room for changing.

Pistons tease

While the Pistons locker room and player area wasn't available to reporters because it remains under construction, the team did provide a fact sheet.

The basics are that it's 1,250 square feet with 12-foot high ceilings and 18 lockers — all USB capable. A 98-inch interactive media wall will be used for game film breakdown and preparation.

The training room will include a cryotherapy system and various plunge pools. A "refueling station" is being built for player food and diet.

A 1,150-square-foot player lounge includes theater-style seating configuration available for meeting space, and seating for meals.

Everything for the Pistons was a retrofit to the arena's original design, which was intended just for the Red Wings and concerts. The Pistons worked out a deal in November to leave the Palace for the new downtown venue, and $40 million in new bonds were issued to pay for the construction debt incurred by the renovations to accommodate the team (and its taller players).